A beer jockey! That sounds like a job I could handle, Bob! Maybe I could get some training here in the northwest! I started a PT program last week regarding knee pain, so at least I am conversing with the medical community. We'll see.

Michael Darter was the photographer that joined us for the 2011 Challenge and took the photos that appeared in Backpacker Magazine. He's recently put up an expanded collection that is quite nice and gives a good flavor of the event.

This one happens to capture Crown Point - the first stop on the 2013 Challenge:

What is the car to car distance on these Sierra peaks during this challenge? Do you just go back to a town for dinner each night? We don't have a whole lot of peaks that close to the trailhead in Wyoming.......or that close to a town for that matter........or towns for that matter. Never mind......I need to get out of Wy/Mt more.

^^^I've been thinking I need to get to WY/MT, but the Sierra and other CA ranges keep distracting me. Maybe I can hold off even longer based on that descriptor. I might suffer a bit too much if not in shape, but imagining them up there in the High Sierra 10 days in a row, dayhiking 10-30 miles with 3,000-10,000+ feet of gain always makes me a bit jealous. The timing generally falls during the busiest few weeks for work schedules in my household. I was thinking of making it for the weekends this year, but....

The Challenge is starting exactly six weeks after I had planned to dayhike Crown Point. I didn't do that hike as I broke my ankle on the warm up hike the day before. After waiting over a week and a half for surgery, I won't be healed by next weekend (hopefully by Labor Day), but I'll be looking forward to living vicariously through the reports and pics.

Ze and Deb, you probably know this--the parking lot would be the same, but you'd be on a different trail than for Crown Point from the outset. You could choose to make Matterhorn more exciting, but the normal class 2 route up the SE slope from Horse Creek Pass is mostly a scree slog at the end. Heading up the ridge as close to the pass as is reasonable makes for slightly firmer ground. The overall hike is interesting and scenic along the creek and falls most of the way, eventually passing through some rugged use-trail terrain, with great views at the top. If you cut up toward the peak early, crossing Horse Creek and heading west/up (from east/northeast of the peak), you'll find even better scenery, but I'd guess the east couloir would be sloggy this year...there are use trails to the couloir and climbing routes. You might be able to manage Whorl on the same hike. It is the same approach via Horse Creek Pass as Matterhorn, similar views, and might be more right up your alley as far as having fun on solid rock rather than scree and talus.

Deb wrote:Unfortunately, I will not be participating in the SC. Cardiac issues are taking me to the ER this weekend.

Better to find out now, than 50 miles from nowhere. I just backpacked with a fellow who had heart surgery 4 months ago... he has more wind now than before the operation. Occasionally, medical science gets it right.

Just got back from two weeks in Philmont, NM with the Boy Scouts. Whiney teenage boys are whiney. Despite that, New Mexico was rather awesome. The place has more green grass right now than all of California, me thinks. Rained every day and I loved them all (I might have loved them less if the sun hadn't also come out every day).

Now I have to unpack and repack for the Challenge. I'm going to leave the backpack, tent and other accouterments of the backcountry overnighters at home. If I can turn around and head off to the hills in two days, so can any of you still wondering what you should do the next two weekends. This really isn't any sort of grueling sufferfest - mostly we just have fun. Taking it easy and enjoying yourself is well within the rules. Still time to Sign Up!

Deb - sorry to hear about your cardiac issues, hope all comes out well. We'll be thinking of you.